See the lockets that Charles Dickens and his sister-in-law exchanged

London’s Charles Dickens Museum is unveiling some of its recently acquired — and never before displayed — artifacts in a new Oliver Twist themed exhibit.

The stars of the show are two lockets, one with the author’s hair and the other with the hair of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth.

This isn’t, as one might think (especially given how Dickens and his wife were estranged at the end of their lives), proof of a romantic affair, but rather evidence of their deep friendship — one that was abruptly cut short when Hogarth died at age seventeen.

Louisa Price, the curator for the “More! Oliver Twist, Dickens and Stories of the City” exhibit, describes this friendship and how its tragic ending affected Dickens the man and Dickens the author to the Guardian.

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